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This report provides a synthesis review of a set of incentive-based instruments that have been employed to varying degrees around the world. It is part of an effort by The Rockefeller Foundation to improve understanding of both the potential of these instruments and their limitations. The report is divided into five sections. Section 1 provides an introduction to the synthesis review. Section 2 describes the research methodology. Section 3 provides background on policy instruments and detail on three incentive-based instruments -- water trading, payment for ecosystem services, and water quality trading -- describing the application of each, including their environmental, economic, and social performances, and the conditions needed for their implementation. Section 4 highlights the role of the private sector in implementing these instruments, and Section 5 provides a summary and conclusions.

Medford, OR's wastewater treatment plant, the Regional Water Reclamation Facility (RWRF), serves 170,000 customers in southern Oregon's Rogue watershed. Data shows the population increasing to over 204,600 in 2020. Although the RWRF discharges treated effluent, as population grows and requirements get tighter, it has the potential to exceed its temperature or thermal limits, especially during low-flow periods in the fall. To keep this from happening, RWRF plant engineers studied several solutions, including installing mechanical chillers and storing treated wastewater in an expanded pit. If the city had decided to upgrade the wastewater treatment facility, the cost would have totaled about $16 million.
Instead, the city signed a $6.5 million contract with the Freshwater Trust, a not-for-profit river restoration organization. Medford chose water-quality trading to solve the projected exceedance of thermal load and the Trust was hired to implement and maintain the ongoing 20-year project. The Rogue River draws native coldwater fish, including Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. They are listed as "threatened" under the Federal Endangered Species Act and, the two species are adversely affected by warm water. The Rogue River is also used for recreation, with participants taking jet boat tours, white­water rafting, and kayaking.
The water-quality trading program adapted by the Trust features riparian restoration -- that is, planting and maintaining trees and shrubs along the banks of the Rogue and its tributaries. This streamside vegetation on 10 -- 15 miles of the river will cool the water temperature by blocking solar load in this ongoing project, according to the plan.

Five years ago Medford, Oregon, had a problem common for most cities -- treating sewage without hurting fish. The city's wastewater treatment plant was discharging warm water into the Rogue River. Fish weren't dying, but salmon in the Rogue rely on cold water. And the Environmental Protection Agency has rules to make sure they get it.
So, instead of spending millions on expensive machinery to cool the water to federal standards, the city of Medford tried something much simpler: planting trees. It bought credits that paid others to handle the tree planting, countering the utility's continued warm-water discharges. Shady trees cool rivers, and the end goal is 10 to 15 miles of new native vegetation along the Rogue.

World Resources Institute (WRI);
National Network on Water Quality Trading;
Willamette Partnership;

The United States has made significant progress in cleaning its rivers, lakes, and oceans. Investment in wastewater treatment plant technology, conservation practices with land managers, and restoration of natural systems is working in many places. The public supports clean water, yet there is still a long way to go in achieving the vision of fishable, swimmable waters. More than half of the country's streams, lakes, and estuaries are not meeting the water quality standards established under the Clean Water Act to provide clean drinking water, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and other designated uses.
The work that lies ahead to achieve clean water will require additional tools and new approaches that can account for watershed dynamics, allow flexibility on how to achieve clear, enforceable goals, and target investment where it can most effectively improve water quality. Water quality trading, under the right conditions, can fit these criteria.

Duke Energy, the nation's largest electrical utility, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to nine criminal violations of the Clean Water Act for polluting four major rivers for several years with toxic coal ash from five power plants in North Carolina.

Duke Energy has pleaded guilty in federal court to environmental crimes and has agreed to pay $102 million in fines and restitution over years of illegal pollution leaking from coal-ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants.

The Electric Power Research Institute (ERPI) moves its water quality trading program in the Ohio River Basin into a new stage with the upcoming public auction of stewardships generated during the first three years of the project.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is holding a public auction to sell the stewardship credits generated during the Ohio River Basin Water Quality Trading Project's pilot phase. While success isn't certain, developers of the historic project are sure significant lessons will be learned in terms of moving forward with water quality trading.

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